They are trying to reshape the entire face of the organization. The franchise felt that if they slapped the name Yankees on their it would just sell itself. The fans were/are extremely disgruntled over the last five years about the way they had been treated.

For example only season ticket holders were the ones receiving anything on giveaway nights, prices for tickets and all that went up after the Phillies left...Plus with all the political crap going on it was pretty ugly..They are hoping with the renovation of the stadium and some fresh ideas fans will embrace the team..That will remain to be seen

Can you elaborate on that, since you seem to know a lot of the specifics? Especially curious about "the political crap" and why any team wouldn't want it to "just sell itself", especially a minor league team.

Sorry for being a little vague in my original response. I was cruising the site at work last night and the topic just caught my attention...

As for the politics, that was one of the main reasons the Phillies decided to move to Lehigh Valley..Brand new park and obviously closer to Philly, but while they were here the Lackawanna County Stadium authority were the ones that called the shots. Basically a group made up of local politicians and wannabe politicians highlighted by the three county commissioners..When the home clubhouse was getting out of date and the Phillies wanted to expand the weight room at the park, it had to go to a vote as opposed to just putting the money together and getting it done..That didn't sit well with the Phillies brass and the IL commissioner, Randy Mobley said the turmoil surrounding the authority was like he has/had never seen before..

When it got out that the Yankees were thinking about leaving Columbus right around the time the Phillies and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre were ending their relationship a single county commissioner was the one who brokered the deal. That mean exclusive trips to New York and all that..That county commissioner has since landed in jail on corruption charges...Attendance began to dwindle in the late years of the Red Barons and people in the area were under the impression that if the "Yankees" came to town it automatically get the attendance up in the 8,000-9,000 a night. The first year it was very respectable.But as the years wore on that wasn't the game...Fans complained of the way they were treated. The bleachers down both lines were removed and stadium seating was put in place which meant they could charge more for tickets...If it was a giveaway night and you are a season ticket holder you received the promotion. If I just wanted to buy a walk-up for that night's game, I didn not receive the promotion.

The club has since been sold to Mandalay which has a host of teams at various levels around the country. The big fear is that Mandalay will up and move the team to a different location. Plans are apparently in place for that not to happen but people remain skeptical..

The stadium is under renovation hence forcing the team to play on the road all year with the promises it will be complted in time for next April. Construction began later than planned. The renovated park will take on the look of Lehigh Valley with the upper deck being removed and seating around the outfield in the grass areas...

Hope this clears things up a bit..I can add more if you want to continue the discussion...Thanks for your time.

The Yankees should have returned their IL club to Syracuse - they are still the most popular MLB club in this town by far since many older folks grew up watching their AAA club at the old MacArthur Stadium, and the local politicians would have tripped over themselves giving the team whatever it asked for.

Really? The Chiefs were only affiliated with the Yankees from 1967 - 1977. They were then with the Blue Jays for 30 years prior to switching to the Nationals in 2009. They are currently under a contract with the Nationals through at least 2014 and couldn't just switch to the Yankees without going through some significant hurdles.

Little known fact (at least to me), the Syracuse Chiefs were affiliated with the Boston Red Sox from 1934-1936.

Interesting, PaSox, thanks for that, and please feel free to post any more details of this situation as it develops. I was under the impression for some reason that the Yankees themselves owned the club, but I guess that's pretty rare (?).